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Tandberg
| operating_income = US $176.7 million (2008) | net_income = US $140.8 million (2008) | num_employees = 1,450 (2008) | homepage = www.tandberg.com | intl = yes | parent = Cisco Systems }} with TANDBERG Tactical MXP. APEC Singapore 2009]] This article is about the video-conferencing vendor, a Cisco company. Other companies with the same name such as Tandberg Television or Tandberg Data for data storage: see here and here Tandberg is a manufacturer of videoconferencing systems, located in Oslo, Norway (product development, sales and distribution) and New York City, USA (sales and distribution). The company's main competitor is Polycom and other competitors are HP, Sony, Radvision, LifeSize Communications, VTEL and Aethra.Hermann Simon mentioned this company in his correspondent Book as an example of a "Hidden Champion" (Simon, Hermann: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century : Success Strategies of unknown World Market Leaders. London: Springer, 2009.- ISBN 978-0-387-98147-5.) Cisco Systems acquired Tandberg on 19 April 2010. History Tandbergs Radiofabrikk The company was founded by Vebjørn Tandberg as Tandbergs Radiofabrikk (the Tandberg Radio Factory) in Oslo in 1933. The company's first radio was named "Tommeliten", and used only earphones. This was followed by the "Corona" with a loudspeaker. In 1934, the first "Huldra" radio was launched, followed in 1936 by the "Sølvsuper". During the early years, radios, loudspeakers and microphones were the main output from the factory. The Sølvsuper and the Huldra radios became the foundation for Tandberg's success. In the early 1950s, Tandberg opened a branch plant at Kjelsåshttp://www.dagbladet.no/2012/06/19/kultur/analog_digital/musikk/hi_fi/audiofilt/22169110/ (in Oslo) to produce reel-to-reel tape recorders. Their first model was the TB 1, introduced to the market in 1952. Over the next decade, Tandberg quickly incorporated a number of leading-edge concepts; the TB 2 Hi Fi of 1956 had three tape transport speeds, allowing improved high-frequency response. The TB 3 Stereo from 1957 was Tandberg's first stereo system. In the 1960s Tandberg introduced the cross-field recording technique in the TB-6X model, allowing their recorders to handle higher frequencies than competing models. Tandberg licensed the concept to Akai, who used it widely in the 1970s and 80s in their Akai and Roberts recorders. Tandberg tape recorders dominated the Norwegian market, and had a reputation for advanced technology and high quality at reasonable prices. It was on Tandberg reel-to-reel machines that President John F. Kennedy recorded many meetings in the Cabinet Room of the White House, including those associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis.Zelikow, Philip D., Timothy Naftali, and Ernest R. May (Eds.). 2001. The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy, The Great Crises. New York: Norton. Vol. 2, p. xvii. The Kjelsas factory also started producing TV sets in 1960, and in 1966 a second TV plant was opened in Kjeller in Skedsmo. Colour TV's were added to their lineup in 1969. In 1972, Tandberg purchased Radionette, another large Norwegian electronics firm now focussing on televisions. By 1976, TVs were Tandberg's major product and their factories employed 3,500. However, that same year a major economic downturn seriously disrupted the company, and by 1978 it was insolvent. A shareholder revolt removed Vebjorn Tandberg from control of the company, and he committed suicide in August. In December, the company declared bankruptcy. Split-up In the aftermath of the bankruptcy, the original Tandberg was split into two parts. Tandberg Data took over the tape recording side of the company and moved it purely into the computer storage field, and the remaining portions lost the "Radiofabrikk" to become, simply, Tandberg. In 1984, the consumer audio equipment division was spun off to become Tandberg Audio. Tandberg's first picture telephone for ISDN was developed in 1989, while the fully integrated Vision H.320 picture telephone was launched in 1993. Subsequently, focus moved to higher performance systems – the Grand Vision and the Master Vision series. New desktop endpoints were also added – the Compact Vision and the Vision600. The first US office opened in 1995 in Connecticut. It was moved to Kansas City for a short period before moving to Reston, Virginia in August 1996. In 1997 the company acquired two sales and distribution companies in North America, establishing a firm foothold in the single largest videoconferencing market in the world. It created two large sales and support offices in the US. One in Virginia and the other in Texas. The office in Reston, Virginia remains the largest office in the US to this date. Also in 1997, The television manufacturing portions became Tandberg Television. In 1999 the company acquired the Norwegian technology company Internet Technology AS which had developers experienced with the ITU H.323 standard, especially from VoIP-projects like the world's first commercial H.323 VoIP service launched in 1997 with Telenor. In 2000 the company moved into IP based videoconferencing using the maturing H.323 standard, making the entire product line IP capable. Since 2000, the company has expanded its product line greatly, by adding enterprise-class MCUs, Gateways, service-provider class MCUs and H.323 Gatekeepers. In 2001 the company also acquired a consultancy company Delante AS which enabled it to focus more on external software integration and bindings, especially the Microsoft platform. In 2004 Ridgeway Systems and Software, a UK based software house specializing in Firewall and NAT traversal, was acquired. The result of this acquisition was the Tandberg Expressway Firewall Traversal technology, which allows any H.323 video endpoint to place calls through any number of firewalls or NAT devices. In July 2004, the company released a major new endpoint product line, the "MXP" series.TANDBERG Introduces Breakthrough Technology That Transforms Video Communication Experience downloaded 27 May 2011 In February 2005, the company released SIP software for all its video endpoints, as well as a major update to its SCCP based video systems. In July 2005, the company acquired IVIGO from TNO Telecom. IVIGO, based in the Netherlands, developed and successfully commercialized circuit switched video solutions for UMTS network operators, vendors and content providers. The IVIGO 3G-to-H.323 video gateway is now used by Tandberg's high-end visual communications systems to connect over video to 3G handheld phones. personal videoconferencing system was introduced in 2008.]] In September 2005, Cisco Systems officially launched the Cisco 7985G, a Cisco-Tandberg co-branded desktop videophone. In October 2005, the company acquired Ectus Ltd, a New Zealand based software development company specializing in streaming and archiving software. On 16 December 2005 Andrew Miller stepped down as CEO, replaced by the CFO Fredrik Halvorsen. Halvorsen was a relatively new hire with a background from McKinsey. In September 2007, the company acquired Codian, a rival developer of video-conferencing infrastructure products, for $270 million in cash and shares. In 2009, the company introduced the full-HD "C-series" endpoint product line, including the "EX-series" desktop appliances, progressively replacing the previous "MXP" product series. In October 2009, Cisco Systems made a $3 billion recommended offer to acquire Tandberg. After upping its offer to almost $3.4 billion, Cisco announced on 4 December 2009 that over 90% of Tandberg's shares had been tendered, allowing it to squeeze out the remaining shareholders. In February 2011, Tandberg was officially rebranded to Cisco, however the Tandberg name continues to be extensively used (as of mid 2011). Companies sharing the name There are also other companies called Tandberg with roots in the same parent company, although not necessarily with common ownership: * SANAKO/Tandberg Educational * Tandberg Audio * Tandberg Unterrichtstechnik (Deutschland) * Tandberg Data * Tandberg Storage * Tandberg Telecom – fully owned subsidiary * Tandberg Television Products * Immersive Conferencing systems: Tandberg T1 & T3,T1 and T3 portfolio Multipurpose room systemsVideo conferencing products * Personal systems such as desktop systems, video enabled VOIP phones and video-conferencing solutions for mobile phones and tabletsPersonal Video conferencing portfolio * Call Control systems like the Video Communication server or the enterprise level Unified Communications ManagerTandberg website on Call Control products * Videoconference Manager: Cisco Telepresence Manager and the software suite to manage the CTM. The CTM makes it possible to connect any device in a single "Telepresence" conference callCisco CTM brochure, PDF document,retrieved 27 Feb 2011 * CTM Director for enterprise wide management of all CTM endpointsTandberg CTM Director software, visited 27 Feb 2011 * Infrastructure systems: :* Telepresence server :* MSE 8000 series multipoint video conferencing systemsMSE 8000 series documentation, visited 27 Feb 2011 :* MCU conferencing bridges: MCU 4200 and 4500 seriesTandberg MCU brochure, retrieved 27 Feb 2011 :* Media Processing System: MPS200 and MPS800Tandberg product documentation of the MPS 800 series, visited 25 Feb 2011 :* Cisco Telepresence multipoint switches: combine any type of TP endpoints in one callCisco product documentation on the CTmS switches, visited 26 Feb 2011 :* Infrastructure: Advanced Media Gateway,IP Gateway server, IP/ISDN Gateway servers and content serversInfrastructure information, visited 27 Feb 2011 :* Conference recorders: Tandberg IP VCR and Cisco Telepresence Recording server to allow recording of multipoint video conferences :* Video conferencing cloud services: enable video conferences between different companies crossing ones own (network) borders, but maintaining high level of security. With the supporting system included in the Immersive systems or dedicated management servers, all these systems can interact with each other and be used in one conference session: people using a video-enabled smartphone or tablet can participate in a conference-call setup using the CTS models, and everyone automatically receives both optimal image quality and features for their system. The propriety protocol used in the Immersive TP systms can interact with industry open standards used in mobile phones, tablets and video-enabled VOIP devices regardless of their vendor: any device can connect to any other system The product portfolio of existing Cisco video conferencing solutions and the Tandberg systems are now combined in one portfolio. The Tandberg product names have changed, but they are still being offered using the Tandberg brand name, and overlaps still remain in the portfolioTandberg Telepresence Product brochure, PDF, downloaded 24 Feb 2011 Controversy In November 2010, Jason Garret-Glaser, a x264 developer, published information in which he claims that one of Tandberg Telecom's patent applications from December 2008 contains a step-by-step description of an algorithm he committed to the x264 codebase around two months earlier. This was relayed by media, which remarked that the employer who filed the patent was following the x264 project IRC development channel and was known to the project developers, leading to Tandberg claiming that they discovered the algorithm independently. Copies of e-mails that demonstrate this, together with an affidavit and an Information disclosure statement was filed by Tandberg with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in June 2011. References External links *Official site *Private Tandberg classics site * History of Tandbergs Radiofabrikk 1933–78 Category:Cisco Systems acquisitions Category:Companies based in Bærum Category:Companies established in 1933 Category:Computer companies of Norway Category:Electronics companies of Norway Tandberg Category:Telecommunications equipment vendors Category:Teleconferencing Category:Videotelephony